Recently, the world has witnessed a phenomenal growth in the number of Internet users, applications and devices and in the amount of data traffic especially that of medium-rich content—all demanding reliable high-speed, low-cost, low power consumption communication devices. The Internet utilizes fiber optic channels for ultra high speed communications. The optical signals sent along the fiber optic channels are received by receivers that include both optical components and electrical components. The receivers convert the optical signals to electrical signals and send the converted electrical signals to electronic computer networks operating at lower speeds for processing data. The transmitters, on the other hand, receive the electrical signals from electronic computer networks, convert them into optical signals and send them to the fiber optic channels.
These receivers and transmitters used in telecommunications applications may need to meet the optical standards that have emerged. One such standard is the Synchronous Optical Networks (SONET) which is a standard formulated by the Exchange Carriers Standards Association (ECSA) for the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The SONET is used for telecommunications and other industries mainly in North America and Japan. Another standard is the Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) standard which was published by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and used in other parts of the world. The OC-192 SONET standard or STM64 SDH Standard is for speeds at about 9-13 Gbps depending on error correction coding, and the OC-768 SONET standard or STM 256 SDH Standard is for speeds at about 36 to 48 Gbps.
In 1998, an industry-wide initiative was announced to create the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF), an open forum focused on fostering the development and deployment of interoperable products and services for data switching and routing using optical networking technologies. To accelerate the deployment of optical networking technology and facilitate industry convergence on interoperability, the OIF identified, selected, and augmented as appropriate and published optical internetworking standards. Information regarding the OIF and publications by the OIF can be found at the website of the OIF.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to be able to produce communication devices, and particularly serializers, deserializers, transmitters and receivers, that can satisfy the high-speed, high-performance, low-power communication needs demanded by the Internet and other multimedia communication applications while meeting the SONET/SDH standards and the OIF standards. It would be also desirable to produce such devices that are highly integrated and testable and cost-effective.